GARY SHILLING: Only One Thing Will Revive This Economy

We recently reached out to our favorite economists and asked
them: "What one thing would ignite this economy?"

But bearish economist Gary Shilling wasn't about to stray from
his long-term thesis.

"The only thing that's likely to revive the U.S.
economy is time—the 5 to 7 years of it needed
for deleveraging to be completed—especially in the global
financial sector and amongU.S. households," he told
us.

"Meanwhile, slow real growth of about 2 percent per year
and more frequent recessions are to be expected. Ongoing
economic weakness, despite massive monetary and fiscal stimuli,
measures the huge power of private sector deleveraging."

We also asked Shilling if he could use his imagination a
bit and come up with pie-in-the-sky, silver bullet type of fix
for the economy that policy makers could employ.

He wasn't falling for that.

"There are no silver monetary or fiscal bullets to
fix the economy, as witnessed by the tremendous efforts so far
that have failed to restore meaningful growth," he said.
"They are overwhelmed by deleveraging in the private
sector."